In his video address at the tourism conference titled ”Tapping the Potential of Kashmir: Another day in Paradise’ at SKICC here, LG Manoj Sinha today thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allocating Rs 786 crores in the budget this year for development of tourism in J&K, which is 509 crore higher than last time.
Sinha also expressed his gratitude towards Union Culture & Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel for his full support in making efforts to restore tourism in the UT. Sinha added that Jammu & Kashmir has a great tourism potential and the administration will come up with a new film policy very soon, which will bring back the golden film era to Jammu & Kashmir. Sinha explained that tourism has been badly hit by the pandemic. Keeping in mind health and other aspects of people involved, many measures have been taken to ensure safety of visiting tourists. Kashmir as a destination for weddings, film tourism, MICE etc. is looked forward to as it offers immense possibilities and he hoped that the deliberations at the event will go a long way in showing the way forward.
Sinha further elaborated that for the transformation of the tourism sector, five pillars will remain the focus which include sustainable development for the tourism industry, strengthening the hospitality sector, human resource development, development of golf and popularisation of food.
Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, today stated that the central government is making better efforts to tap the tourism potential of J&K. The Union Minister made these comments while addressing the tourism conference titled, ”Tapping the Potential of Kashmir: Another day in Paradise.’
He said that to improve the flow of tourists into Jammu and Kashmir, this conference has been organised wherein all the stakeholders have been invited to meet, discuss and give suggestions to create better tourism infrastructure in entire J&K.
Patel while expressing his satisfaction over the improving number of tourists thronging Kashmir from past one year, said, ‘I think after the abrogation of Article 370 and other subsequent developmental works taken with respect to the tourism sector the number of tourists visiting here has increased and this has made us think of giving a makeover to the already existing tourism places here’.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Khan said that after COVID pandemic, we did lot of activities to restore tourism activities here. Several webinars and various strategies were adopted in this direction.
He said that today I can proudly say of what we made as a humble beginning has started to yield results as there was a sudden spurt of influx of tourists in winters in Kashmir and also in Jammu which encouraged us to go a bit further more and in the depth of the winter, tourism was its one of the highest best, there was no place vacant in Kashmir even the houseboats were booked. This gave me satisfaction that tourism has revived in Jammu and Kashmir.
Secretary General FICCI, Dilip Chinoy and Chairperson, FICCI Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Committee and CMD the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, Jyotsna Suri also spoke on the occasion and gave their insights about the tourism of J&K and ways and means to improve it further.
Earlier, Director Tourism Kashmir, Dr G N Itoo presented a PowerPoint presentation on potential of tourism in Kashmir, wherein he showcased the number of tourist destinations in J&K.
Among others, the event was attended by Union Tourism Secretary, Arvind Singh, Secretary Tourism, J&K, Sarmad Hafeez, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism GoI, Rupinder Brar, Secretary General FICCI, Dilip Chinoy, Chairperson, FICCI Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Committee and CMD The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, Jyotsna Suri, besides others.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in association with the Tourism Department of J&K, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) and the Indian Golf Tourism Association (ITGA) had organised the tourism conference here.
The objective of the event was to showcase the Myriad tourism products of the UT of J&K and promote J&K tourism as the destination for leisure, adventure, eco, wedding and MICE tourism.